Kurppa Hosk is a design agency.

We inspire progress.

Who we are

Kurppa Hosk is a diverse team of design thinkers and design doers. We collaborate with brave organizations – from early stage startups, to some of the world’s most admired companies. We use business, brand and experience design to inform and inspire meaningful progression. We do this through Business Artistry – an approach that combines commercial and behavioral research, insight and analysis with boldness, beauty, technology and meticulous craftsmanship.

Because we strongly believe that magic happens on the interface between the linear and non-linear, the rational and irrational, realism and intuition. We also believe in meaningful work and meaningful relationships.

We’re guided by our values grit, transparency, karma and essentialism. From our studios in Stockholm and New York, we design across industries, markets, cultures, platforms, channels and technologies.

No. employees

0

Founded

2018

Business Artistry

Business Artistry

In this era, business, market, user and customer data and insight are becoming even more accessible and ubiquitous. Good technology, software and production methods are too. Hence, creating an intuitive e-commerce service, a functional digital bank or a decent brand identity isn’t overwhelmingly challenging. (They can all actually be bought out-of-the-box). Therefore, what will differentiate one brand, product or service from another and make it more desirable for their target audiences, isn’t just its functionality. It’s also how it’s experiencedin terms of visual design, interaction design, motion design, content, messaging and code. However, great experiences are starting to become commoditized too. Just think about how many great brands, services and products you can choose from in any given category these days.

This is why our conviction is that businesses and brands need to push their experiences to even more interesting domains. Not only in order to differentiate and disrupt, but to also attract and retain users, customers, employees and investors. All while, of course, still maintaining the relevance, coherence and authenticity that build from good market and customer data, and tech. We think that true magic only happens on the intersection between the rational and irrational. In-between order and chaos. This, we argue, is the consequence of acknowledging the qualities of both the left and right cerebral hemispheres, in a symbolic, but also in a very practical sense. I.e., with regard to how spoiled we all are with great experiences; business and brand owners (and often their entire organizations!) need the courage and boldness to go out on a limb and explore the unknown.

Doing so, by informing and inspiring their experiences with art, poetry, punk, quirkiness, beauty, philosophy, culture, pop-culture or whatever else that can create what is more immersive. Adding to this, considerations with regard to social, societal and sustainability issues must, of course, also be made.

—This is the foundation of Business Artistry.

Business and brand owners need their experiences to be fertilized by concepts from outside their own industry and peers. They need to cross-pollinate learnings from different and even opposing industries. Because there’s a lot a bank giant can learn from a small art gallery, a global telco from an avant-garde fashion house, and a tech start-up from an architecture firm.

In order to not be forced to stand down as a business or a brand, you basically need to stand out.

This is the foundation for Business Artistry. An approach that informs how Kurppa Hosk organizes, operates and how we facilitate meaningful change for our clients. An approach that requires a great deal of openness, collaboration and iteration within our team, as well as with our clients.

Our values

Grit

Transparency

Essentialism

Karma

Grit

We work grittier, we think grittier, we design grittier. It’s how we see every failure as an opportunity to make things better. It’s what drives us and glues us together as a team, but also with our clients. Grit is self propelment, discipline and never giving up in the search for a better solution. Grit is our passion and perseverance combined.

Transparency
We aim to always be true to ourselves, our clients and partners. This can only happen by leaving our egos and hidden agendas out. Transparency is seeing things for what they are. And communicating accordingly. It’s closing the gap between assumptions and reality. Which requires humility and the ability to listen and learn. It’s seeing things from all perspectives and realizing that even though you have a strong opinion, somebody else might be the one who’s right. Transparency ingrains how we communicate, act and interact. Ultimately, it leads to more meaningful relationships.

—Transparency ingrains how we communicate, act and interact.

Essentialism
This is to have the discipline and courage to say no to things that distract us from fulfilling our aspirations. It’s the patience to wait for the right solution and that genius idea. Essentialism is prioritizing what we and our clients really need and cut away everything that distracts. Essentialism is hard focus on what we do best. Practicing essentialism is hard, but it’s the pre-requisite for creating magic.

Karma
We put all our efforts into being humble, well behaved, polite and friendly. We are respectful to everybody. We are never patronizing. We never act or talk in a condescending or a sexist way. We never trash-talk anybody. We also do our best to show our heads and health the same respect. As a company, we do what we can to reduce our negative impact on the environment. We, basically, follow the principles of karma.